Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Get inspired - regain the creative spark in your short story or novel

I've just published "Writing fiction: spark your writing with images" on Writing Hacker.

Here's an excerpt:

You've been writing your novel or short story, and for a while you were inspired, but as quickly as the inspiration arrived, it's departed.

You've lost the spark. You might as well be writing a shopping list; you hate every word you write.

This is a dangerous situation, because while you feel this way it's hard for you to imagine that your writing is good and worthwhile. You think it's awful, and you're tempted to delete the project from your computer.

Read the rest.

Technorati Tags: creativity, fiction, novel

Stop me before I buy ANOTHER mind mapping program...

I love mind mapping, and mind mapping programs.

I've tried every mind mapping computer program ever created, and have paid for far too many of them, since I usually doodle dinky mind maps onto index cards... I open a computer mind mapping program once a week, tops.

But...

My latest mind mapping temptation - XMind (for Windows and Mac.)

I like this program. Unlike my other old faithfuls, NovaMind and Mind Manager, XMind lets me annotate maps, and brainstorm in a truly friendly fashion.

XMind is on special for this month. I've promised myself that unless I use this program for seven days straight, I don't need it.

Will I succumb to temptation again? :-)

If you're looking for writing prompts and tips : Your EveryDay Write gives you free prompts and tips, almost daily.

Technorati Tags: creativity

Writing inspiration Tip 4: Places

Places are great sources of inspiration, and a place doesn't have to be spectacular in order for you to be inspired by it.

As you go through your daily routine, develop a habit of observation. Not only of people, but of places too. Becoming observant is valuable for both fiction and nonfiction. Observation will inspire you to create memorable settings, and will help you to ground your nonfiction.

The difference between writing which sells, and writing which doesn't, is often credibility. If you're a keen observer of places, your writing will be credible. Consider Stephen King. While there are many horror writers, King is a bestseller because of his sense of observation. You feel as if the people and places in his novels are real.

Today, for each place you visit - whether it's your office, a coffee shop, the video store - take note of one salient detail. "Take note" means write it down!

Once you get into the habit of noting just one salient detail of place, your writing will improve, and you'll be effortlessly inspired.

Read the "Top 70 Writing Tips To Help You To Write More" for many more ways to become inspired.

Earlier tips in this Writing Inspiration series

1. Words, word, words

2. Images

3. People

Technorati Tags: creativity

Writing inspiration Tip 3: People

If you're feeling uninspired, people watching can get your ideas flowing again.

Take yourself to: a mall, a railway station, or a cafe, or anywhere there are lots of people, for an hour of dedicated people watching.

Write capsule descriptions of people. Your description consists of just a sentence - "woman, 40s, jeans, brown shoulder-length hair" - to help you to recall the person. Plus, write one identifying feature of each person. For example, "shifting weight on white stilettos - feet hurt?" or "fresh from hairdresser, hair extensions".

People watching works whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction; it sharpens your powers of observation. If you're stuck on a piece of writing, you will be amazed that you'll also get ideas on how to proceed with it. People watching is always inspiring.

Try it. Tell us how people watching works for you in the comments to this post.

Writing inspiration Tip 2: Images

Images are said to stimulate the right side of your brain: the creative side.

Whatever, images inspire me to write.

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - Museum of Art and History is one of my favorite sites. I can browse the images on the site, and within minutes, feel words and ideas bubbling up.

I'm a tarot card collector because I can shuffle the images, and lay them out out study them casually... and then before I know it, ideas and words start to form.

Images are everywhere. You can use photographs - your own or others', magazine images, images online - if an image arouses your interest in some way, it may be an inspirational image for you.

How to use your images to inspire you

Relaxation is the key to allowing your images to inspire you. Just relax your body, let your eyes soften so that you're not staring, you're just looking, and look at your images. The more you can relax, without expectation, the more the process will work for you.

Try it.

Earlier tips in this series

Writing inspiration Tip 1: Words, words, words

Writing inspiration Tip 1: Words, words, words

Today, let's start a brand new series - writing inspiration.

As a writer, you shouldn't wait for inspiration; you can get inspired on demand, and this series will show you many ways to do that. So you won't have any excuses not to write. :-)

Words, words, words

Words are the tools of the writer's trade, and they're evocative. For example, I just opened my thesaurus at a random page, and read:

cold, adj. 1. heatless, sunless, cool, chill, chilly, nippy, unheated, unwarmed...arctic...rimy... brisk, keen, snappy...

Reading a thesaurus or a LARGE dictionary always inspires me to write.

Try it. You need paper thesauri and dictionaries if you're reading for inspiration. The electronic versions don't inspire me at all - but your mileage may be different.

Here's an exercise to fire your creativity.

Open your thesaurus at random, and choose a word. Now write an eight line poem using the synonyms and antonyms of your chosen word. This exercise is so effective it could inspire a statue.

Have fun with it. :-)

Your writing workflow: does it make you more creative?

The secret of writing creativity and productivity is to have a workflow which makes you more creative.

Creativity is a process of connection and association. My aim is to build that connection/ association into my workflow as much as possible. My two favorite computer tools for that are Scrivener and Curio. They’re both Mac tools.

I also use index cards. I love them on the computer too, Scrivener has a Corkboard with virtual index cards. Since I’ve started writing another novel, I’m finding the Corkboard is fantastic.

A Pile Of Index Cards has a system for using paper index cards for journaling. Currently it doesn’t suit my workflow, because I carry index cards around and then enter them into either Scrivener or Tinderbox, depending on whether a card refers to a current project, or is just an idea for reference or for further development. However, the site may give you some ideas you can use for your own workflow.

Scrivener seems to be sneaking into more of my workflows. Although I’ve been using the program for a while for longer projects, like manuals and ebooks, and now a new novel, I’ve also started using Scrivener for article writing.

I write articles for my Web sites and blogs, and for clients, usually in PLR packages. Tracking all those articles means that I’ve got hundreds of articles in folders on my Mac. This is fine, I can import the articles into DevonThink Pro when I want to get an overview on what I’ve written on a particular topic.

But I’ve now got a Scrivener file just for articles - I want to see whether having lots of articles together will enhance my creativity because I can more easily see connections. I suspect that it will.

What’s your writing workflow? Please share in the Comments to this post.

You’ll find lots of ideas on developing workflows to enhance your creativity in "Top 70 Writing Tips To Help You To Write More".

Hypnosis for writers - it works, stop procrastinating and enjoy writing

Inspiration seems mysterious - it's not. You can learn to tap into your creativity and inspiration at any time you choose, when you discover hypnosis. Hypnosis makes writing easy.

In his newsletter this week, Adam Eason has a wonderful exercise that's perfect for writers. "10 Steps To Balance Your Mind With Colours And Self-Hypnosis" - try it.

If you find writing difficult, you'll enjoy self-hypnosis. I've written about hypnosis for writers before. It's a great tool you can use.

Technorati Tags: be more productive, creativity

Get wired to write: welcome writing anxiety - it's a good thing

Yesterday, when I was working on a newsletter for a client, I suddenly became aware that I was feeling very anxious. This is nothing new, the creative part of the writing process is a right-brained activity, which means that it often triggers feelings of anxiety - and sadness. (See the transcript of the Catalyst Left Brain Right Brain to experiment with this yourself.) I've become accustomed to writing anxiety: I know it will pass, and that it's a GOOD thing.

Anxiety is a GOOD thing when you're writing

Feeling anxious when you're writing can mean that you're using your right brain, which is (theoretically) the more creative side of your brain. So if you feel anxious when you write, the very worst thing you can do is take this is a signal that you should stop writing - as some new writers do.

Take a few deep, slow breaths, and focus on your tummy as you do so.

Inhale, and exhale, through your noise, feeling the sensations in your tummy and throughout your body. Take ten slow breaths. This easy technique works. Creativity master Eric Maisel has formalized this in his book, "Ten Zen Seconds: Twelve Incantations for Purpose, Power and Calm".

Think of this breathing as a way to focus your creativity, and relax back into writing.

If you keep in mind that anxiety equals right brain activity, you'll be able to write more, and you'll definitely enjoy writing more.

Technorati Tags: creativity

Fiction: dreaming your scenes

A common complaint for novelists and short story writers is not being able to make progress on a story. If this happens to you, you need to know that this is essentially a lack of communication between your right brain (creativity) and left brain (logic)… you can fix it, very easily.

One writer just writes one scene, and then gets STUCK. This one scene seems to be all there is, and no matter how much time he spends on it, he can't "see" another scene. He thinks he's procrastinating, but his challenge isn't time management, it's getting back into a right-brain mind state.

This is very common for beginning writers. Your single scene (or in some cases collection of two or three scenes) is what you can see/ imagine; it's what your right brain/ inspiration is serving up at the moment. ;-) Then your left brain kicks in, and you try to THINK your way to scene two, but it doesn't happen.

Here's how to handle it, if you have one-scene wonders, OR if you get stuck anywhere in your fiction. In novelists, this kind of sticking happens at around chapter three. Again, it's just a right/ left brain thing, and it's easy to fix.

THE FIX: dream the next scene, with your eyes open. That is, pretend you’re having a dream.

Write: "I'm dreaming that____" and carry on writing, describing a dream that you imagine. Write around a page, describing this (imaginary) dream. You're imagining that you're imagining. :-) This is excellent, because it kicks you right into your right brain – there's no way you can be logical about this.

If your dream has nothing to do with Scene One, or wherever you're stuck, that's fine. Write your page. Then, no matter what the subject matter of your dream sequence is, morph it into your stuck scene. Just cram it in there – you'll be amazed that it WILL fit.

Try it.

Technorati Tags: fiction